I think one of the problems we need to address about KA is the music format. The files from the last internal beta total up to 10 MB, which alone can be a hefty handful. I am completely against making the music optional, primarily because that's my job and practically nobody would actually download it. OTOH it could be just me, but IMO if they come with the release, people would have a higher chance of listening to it, rather than wait just as long to download the second zip. What I would recommend is finding a less space-consuming format. I honestly wouldn't mind using MIDI, as a matter of fact, I recommend MIDI (As for SE, audio will be the hero and MIDI will be the zero).

Well I wouldn't be very happy with omitting the MP3, but if it's going to be more than half of the whole KA distribution, maybe it really should be omitted (though good Q, I mean these days people download 400 megs demos for a new game, what's so bad about a 30 megs download for a full game?). Maybe there could be two versions, but not music vs no music but simple and enhanced, the enhanced version including not only the MP3 but also other enriched media stuff (no idea what though). Just thinking out loud. <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) --> At any rate, the Korax CD can be published at any given time, being a not free but not THAT expensive option for people with slow internet connections, it's $4.99 plus shipping at CafePress, and it can hold all the Korax stuff (like all KMOD versions, KA etc). If KA grows to a rather large size, the Korax CD 1.0 could be released when KA 1.0 public is released (originally, I thought to release it when SE is out, but it seems there'll be several other projects released first).

I also think that if the MP3 music is going to be the half (or even more) of the distribution it should be discarded, we could make an enhanced version of the MIDI music that we are using and maybe include it in the CD's as Ramborc says, or make it an optional distribution. I know how you feel about it, 4th Class, but there is still a lot of time to think on more options for this kind of situations. As for SE music it could be the same thing, that would make a plus for people who wish to buy (or download) the music, we could think on some more enhancements for the games too.

SE download will be most probably huge anyway so MP3 won't make that much of a difference any more - i.e. I don't want to provide a MIDI-only option for it. I mean, we're talking about a full RPG and we've put work into it, I don't want anyone's work diminished just because of bandwidth issues. In a way, I feel the same about KA, I think it's simply unfair against the developers to cut this or that. What we could OTOH make is a "demo" version of KA once it's finished, a scaled-down version that contains only one single map, runs only deathmatch, has a stripped-down version of the wadfile and is good for people with very slow connections to download and see first how KA looks and feels and whether it works on their machines at all, and if it's all fine, they might feel more inclined about leaving their computer on for the night to download KA full on a 56K dialup. Hey, I guess this is not a bad idea, and with such a solution we could really say that the full version has only one download option, which includes everything (so the MP3 files as well). What this solution needs is someone who takes on himself to spend the hour or so (no idea how long it actually takes) on determining what everything can be cut out of the wadfiles for that single map still to work (lot of textures etc). Maybe this demo version could even be confined to only some of the player classes and/or only some of their weapons (which would further decrease the number of graphics and sounds needed).

I like the Idea Ramborc.. Seems good. And it took me about 2 Hours to download the 17Meg Internal Beta.. And I should have had a 56K Modem, but it connects at 24k... So I don't really count. I don't even know if I can play SE When its done!!

SE when it's done is no prob since I can send you (and anyone else on the team) a CD. The bigger problem is the files that are constantly changing throughout development and need to be downloaded many times.

I really like the idea too! <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D --> And for the confinement of some of the classes, I say still keep the "option" in the "choose class" section of the demo, but when you hit enter to select the class it will say "unavailable in demo," rather than not be visible at all. Just a clever technique. <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

LOL sure same for the maps and game modes, you can scroll through but you can't choose it. <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->

BTW excalibur.mid on kdev, that sounds a lot like O Luna in Carmina Burana, don't you think?

It's the same song. I called it that because the earliest film from which I heard it was from the Excalibur movie, which was 1981. OTOH if Carmina Burana is older, then the song came from there and the Excalibur crew borrowed it. Otherwise, vice versa.

LOL Carmina Burana is much older. <!-- s:P --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s:P -->